Some people still stuck home due to storm: Mayor holds press conference later today

A mailbox sits nearly buried in snow along the side of the road in downtown Milford Saturday afternoon.

City crews have all been out working to clear snow from major roadways, and one city official said he anticipated that by Monday secondary roads would be clear enough for people to get out and back to work.

Crews have not managed to get all secondary roads plowed, however, and some people this morning are trying to figure out how to get off their roads and into their offices.

Fire Chief Robert Healey said that Milford got the lion’s share of snow in the region, 38 inches. With that record snowfall he said earlier that city crews were doing a great job clearing the roads.

Crews are concentrating on getting main roads clear, and will get to side streets once those are done.

Mayor Ben Blake will hold a press conference Monday to update people on road clearing and other storm-related efforts.

The city is using its own plows, plus outside contractors to tackle the mammoth task.

For now, snow is being piled where possible along main arteries, and Healey cautioned that when people do get out of their driveways, they will have to be aware that mounting snow may cause visibility problems.

The fire department put extra staff in place during the storm. There were routine medical calls, in some cases requiring emergency responders to carry people a distance from their homes to an ambulance on a main road, because of snow obstacles.

There have also been calls from people smelling gas because their household vents were blocked by snow, Healey said. Firefighters were out helping to clear those.

A roof collapsed under the weight of snow at Steven’s Ford, Healey said. No one was in the building, which he described as a wooden structure between two main buildings.

“There was no flooding last night that I know of,” he said on Saturday, continuing to give an overview of the weekend blizzard.